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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Wakeful

When Molly stirred slightly this morning and woke me, I had a sinking feeling that I had just had my night's sleep. Unfortunately, it was 3:00 a.m....and she is still going!

On the way to her school this morning, she really had to know why the sun exists -- I could hear myself attempting to talk about gravity and nuclear fusion while sleep deprived and I knew that she would not get the detailed explanation that she required; thankfully, Keith was there.

After a half-day of field-tripping at the city's only eco/green house, I signed her out of school early and went home hoping to nap. If you've never had a highly inquisitive, highly active and easily bored child of five years, then you don't know that I am going to say that I did not, in fact, nap.

There were some things that she had yet to invent and there were books that she had been intending to read. Her mind is never on a break: know, know, know! Do, do, do!

I am told that she is like this at school, too, always figuring out how things work and hopping from one activity to another -- very rapidly -- to this end. This is why she is not a great sleeper -- getting to sleep is the difficulty.

I do try to remember that our nocturnal wakefulness can be quality time though sometimes I need a little convincing.

So, what did we do in the early hours of today? Well, mostly, we read books and then she looked at books while I doodled. Oftentimes, I am working on a specific project when doodling but just as often I am being plain silly.

And, too, there are those moments when I think of what's in store in raising a nine-year-old tween girl and certain realizations hit me: that 'talk' we often have about growing up has to continue to be positive...